Summary
Improving your Spam Complaint Level (SCL) on Outlook involves a multi-faceted approach focusing on permission-based marketing, email authentication, content relevance, and technical best practices. Securing active consent through confirmed or double opt-in processes ensures that recipients genuinely want to receive your emails. Maintaining a clean email list by removing inactive subscribers and managing feedback loops (FBLs) from junk mail reporting (JMR) helps improve engagement and sender reputation. Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC enhances email authentication, protecting against spoofing and phishing. Creating valuable, relevant content while avoiding spam triggers and URL shorteners is critical. Finally, ensuring emails are mobile-responsive and gradually increasing sending volume during IP warming are key technical considerations for establishing a positive sender reputation and avoiding being flagged as spam.
Key findings
- Opt-In is Crucial: Confirmed or double opt-in processes are essential for building a recipient list of genuinely interested subscribers, directly reducing spam complaints.
- List Hygiene Matters: Regularly cleaning your email list and managing feedback loops (FBLs) maintains high engagement and a positive sender reputation.
- Authentication is Key: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is vital for verifying your domain, protecting against spoofing, and enhancing email authentication.
- Content Quality Influences SCL: Creating valuable and relevant content while avoiding spam triggers and URL shorteners significantly improves your sender reputation and reduces spam complaints.
- Technical Details Impact Deliverability: Ensuring emails are mobile-responsive and gradually increasing sending volume during IP warming are crucial for establishing a positive sender reputation and avoiding spam filters.
- Sender Reputation drives SCL: Sender reputation is a critical factor in SCL, and positive sender reputation can be maintained through list hygiene, sending wanted mail, and authentication.
Key considerations
- Gain Explicit Consent: Prioritize obtaining explicit consent from subscribers to practice permission-based marketing effectively.
- Segment Your Audience: Tailor content to specific segments to ensure relevance and increase engagement.
- Implement Authentication: Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly and monitor their performance regularly.
- Monitor Feedback Loops: Actively monitor and address complaints received through feedback loops to identify and resolve issues.
- Test Before Sending: Always test your emails for spam triggers and mobile responsiveness before sending to large audiences.
- Warm Up New IPs: Gradually increase your sending volume when using new IP addresses to establish a positive reputation with ISPs.
- Configure Outlook Filters: Understand the settings of Outlook's junk email filters to customise how emails are managed
What email marketers say
9 marketer opinions
To improve your Spam Complaint Level (SCL) on Outlook, the consensus emphasizes the importance of permission-based marketing, starting with confirmed or double opt-in processes to ensure genuine subscriber interest. Creating valuable and relevant content, while avoiding spam triggers and excessive frequency, also plays a crucial role. Furthermore, maintaining a clean email list by removing inactive subscribers, testing emails for spam triggers, avoiding URL shorteners, and ensuring mobile responsiveness are vital steps in improving engagement rates, sender reputation, and overall deliverability.
Key opinions
- Opt-in Methods: Confirmed or double opt-in processes are critical for ensuring only genuinely interested subscribers are added to your list, reducing spam complaints.
- Content Relevance: Creating valuable and relevant content, while avoiding spam trigger words and excessive sending frequency, is essential for improving sender reputation.
- List Hygiene: Regularly cleaning your email list by removing inactive subscribers and bounced email addresses improves engagement rates and prevents being marked as spam.
- Technical Elements: Testing emails for spam triggers, avoiding URL shorteners, and ensuring mobile responsiveness are technical factors impacting deliverability and reducing spam complaints.
Key considerations
- Permission: Always obtain explicit consent before sending emails to practice permission-based marketing effectively.
- Value: Prioritize delivering valuable and relevant content that meets your subscribers' expectations.
- Testing: Implement thorough testing processes to identify and address potential spam triggers before sending emails.
- Maintenance: Establish a routine for cleaning and maintaining your email list to ensure high engagement and deliverability.
- User Experience: Ensure that your emails are mobile-responsive to provide a seamless viewing experience across all devices.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that to reduce spam complaints, you should ensure subscribers have genuinely opted-in, make unsubscribing easy, segment your audience, and send relevant content to the correct recipients.
4 Jun 2022 - Mailjet
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares to ensure your emails are mobile-responsive and provide a seamless viewing experience across different devices. Non-responsive emails can negatively impact user engagement and increase spam complaints.
31 Mar 2024 - Email on Acid
What the experts say
6 expert opinions
Improving your Spam Complaint Level (SCL) on Outlook involves focusing on active opt-ins to ensure recipients want your mail, maintaining clean data by removing feedback loop (FBL) reports from junk mail reporting (JMR), and nurturing a positive sender reputation. This includes sending desired content and practicing good list hygiene. Monitoring complaint feedback loops helps identify and address problematic campaigns, while gradually increasing sending volume during IP warming establishes a positive sender reputation with ISPs.
Key opinions
- Active Opt-In: Sending only to users who have actively opted-in reduces the likelihood of spam complaints.
- Data Hygiene: Cleaning data by removing FBL reports from JMR improves deliverability.
- Sender Reputation: Maintaining a positive sender reputation through wanted content and good list hygiene is crucial for SCL.
- Feedback Loops: Monitoring complaint feedback loops helps understand and address issues causing complaints.
- IP Warming: Gradually increasing sending volume during IP warming establishes a positive sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Consent: Always ensure users have actively opted-in before sending emails.
- Monitoring: Regularly monitor and address complaint feedback loops.
- Data Quality: Implement processes to maintain clean and accurate data.
- Reputation Management: Actively manage your sender reputation by sending relevant and wanted content.
- Gradual Increase: When using new IP addresses, gradually increase sending volume to avoid being flagged as spam.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that FBL is feed back loop and JMR is junk mail reporting.
21 Nov 2022 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource.com explains that your sender reputation is a critical factor influencing your SCL. Maintaining a positive sender reputation involves sending wanted mail, and good list hygiene.
2 Jul 2023 - Spamresource.com
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Improving your Spam Complaint Level (SCL) on Outlook involves understanding and configuring junk email filter settings within Outlook, implementing best practices like confirmed opt-in and maintaining a clean mailing list, and authenticating emails using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. DKIM verifies the domain name associated with messages through cryptographic signing, while DMARC helps protect against spoofing and phishing, thereby enhancing email authentication and sender reputation.
Key findings
- Outlook Configuration: Understanding and configuring junk email filter settings in Outlook helps manage and improve SCL.
- Email Authentication: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC improves email authentication and reduces the likelihood of being marked as spam.
- Best Practices: Following best practices such as confirmed opt-in and maintaining a clean mailing list enhances sender reputation.
- DKIM Verification: DKIM provides a method for verifying the domain name associated with a message through cryptographic signing.
- DMARC Protection: Implementing a DMARC policy helps protect against email spoofing and phishing attacks.
Key considerations
- Configuration: Configure Outlook's junk email filter settings to suit your needs.
- Authentication Standards: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for enhanced email authentication.
- Mailing List Hygiene: Regularly clean your mailing list to improve deliverability and engagement.
- DKIM Implementation: Ensure proper implementation of DKIM to verify the domain name associated with messages.
- DMARC Policy: Set up and monitor a DMARC policy to protect against email spoofing and phishing.
Technical article
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that implementing a DMARC policy and monitoring the reports, helps protect your domain from email spoofing and phishing attacks. This also helps improve your email authentication and sender reputation.
8 May 2025 - DMARC.org
Technical article
Documentation from Spamhaus explains that implementing best practices such as using confirmed opt-in, authenticating your emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and maintaining a clean mailing list can improve your sender reputation and reduce the likelihood of being marked as spam.
23 Apr 2024 - Spamhaus
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